Design consistency, an important element in the design process or an ‘Old School’ obsession? A chance to examine a 1937 Fiat AL-56 “La Littorina” railcar confirmed for me how important consistency of design is, consistency is so crucial when working on the details of a product. Within half an hour of seeing the AL-56 I looked at an AMG Mercedes GLA 45, in the street, this car demonstrated how a lack of consistency will produce a bad product that cannot communicate any kind of design identity to the viewer. The Fiat has to be considered in context to realize just how dramatic in must have appeared. In 1937 it was a ‘futurist’ statement that that would have spoken loudly about the strength and forward vision of Italian design and engineering. At that time the AL-56 railcars were used in Tripoli, capital city of Libya, “machines from outer space have landed in North Africa”! would have been the reaction to this machine. Although the Fiat was essentially an engineering exercise all of the details have a confidence in their form and finish, castings give the appearance of being soft but made from hard metal at the same time. The inner roof lights are simple in Standard Class and a little more decorative in First Class but are clearly from the same design hand. Even the interior engine covers are ultra modern in form. The washroom taps are small sculptures. Outside, the covered wheels enhance the feeling of extreme modernity, as do the lights and particularly the slender and elegant buffers. Design friend Ezri Tarazi and I sat inside this brilliant machine and imagined that we were being transported to heaven. We then rushed around the railcar enjoying every small detail that we discovered. The question for designers is, how did the designer of this vehicle clear his mind of pre-conceptions of what a railway car should look like and then, not only make a leap forward in design language but also impart that vision to his team. That is the only way that a product can feel so harmonious and complete as a piece of work. The customer or passenger gains comfort and confidence from the certainty that the design team knew exactly what it was doing. The AMG Mercedes GLA 45 then demonstrated exactly how a product that is also the work of a design team can suggest anarchy within the design process; each designer working on his own precious piece with no great interest in how it might relate to other elements of the design. Nothing in the design language of the steering wheel speaks to the radio controls, which themselves don’t speak to the heater controls, which ignore the air vents which dismiss the instruments with contempt. The GLA 45 is a car that does not know what it is, maybe it’s a small off-road family coupe that is designed for street racing; it has a roof mounted rear spoiler that will only increase drag, a rear aero diffuser that can’t possibly work, fake front brake cooling ducts and fake rear wheel arch outlet ducts, roof rails that you cannot use, and a decorative front splitter for scooping up dog turds. This is not design, it’s a three dimensional manifesto that proposes that the motor-car is a plastic battlefield where ego and personal preference compete for the customers attention!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 18:26:06 +0000
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